Battle of Philippi (West Virginia)

The Battle of Philippi occurred on 3 June 1861, the first organized land action and skirmish of the American Civil War. Union forces routed a small Confederate detachment in West Virginia in a major propaganda victory for the North.

Background
On 13 May 1861, George B. McClellan assumed command of the Union Department of the Ohio, and he planned an offensive into Virginia which would end the American Civil War quickly. He planned to occupy the unionist counties of West Virginia along the Ohio River and keep open the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line, a critical Union supply line. On 26 May 1861, some B&O Railroad bridges near Farmington were burned, so McClellan responded by sending Benjamin Franklin Kelley and his West Virginia regiment to advance from Wheeling to secure the important bridge over the Monongahela River at Fairmont. By 28 May, McClellan had sent 3,000 troops into West Virginia and placed them under the command of Indiana volunteer commander Thomas A. Morris. At the same time, the Confederate general George A. Porterfield had been sent to oversee enlistments in Grafton, and he and his poorly-armed force of 800 recruits retreated 17 miles south to the town of Philippi (capital of secessionist Barbour County) as the Union columns advanced.

Battle
Colonel Kelley led 1,600 Union troops set out to capture Philippi, which controlled the vital Beverly-Fairmont Turnpike. His men planned to attack the rear of the town as Colonel Ebenezer Dumont's Indiana troops would march on the town from Webster in the north, creating a double envelopment. On 2 June, the Union forces set out for Philippi, and a warning shot from a Confederate sympathizer and the ensuing Union artillery fire alerted the Confederates to the Union approach. Most of the Confederates, some still in their bed clothes, simply broke and ran, and the Union nicknamed the battle the "Philippi Races" in mockery. Colonel Frederick W. Lander displayed fine horsemanship by making a daring charge down a steep hill, pursuing the Confederates. Unfortunately, Kelley's column arrived from the north on the wrong road and were unable to block the Confederate retreat. The Union victory left 4 federal and 26 rebel troops dead or wounded, and it was a propaganda victory for the Union and the local unionist cause. Days after Philippi, the unionist counties of West Virginia nullified the Virginia ordinance of secession at the Wheeling Convention and named Francis H. Pierpont as their governor.